Alonso driving at '120%'

Fernando Alonso believes that he is pushing 120% as he bids to stop Sebastian Vettel from winning a third title.

Vettel won the Indian Grand Prix but Alonso limited the damage by finishing in second.

"We can fight the Red Bulls, but at the moment, we still don’t have a car capable of winning. Once again this year we have seen that, in the race, the situation is much better than in qualifying", he said.

"A great start, a great first lap, a good top speed and the right tyre management produced, along with me driving at 120% for each of the sixty race laps, this second place".

Alonso thinks that whatever happens, Ferrari's success is not down to the misfortune of others

We did what we could, as at every race: if, come the end of the championship we will have won, then no one will be able to say it was down to mistakes from the others, but because we always did the maximum".

"We will already have some updates in Abu Dhabi: let’s hope we can make a step forward because it will be important to start making up the points gap there already. There are 75 points up for grabs which is a lot. I am still optimistic even if we are all aware that we have to improve our performance, especially on Saturday"

Alonso added that his performance in India was one of the strongest of the season.

"I don’t know if this was my best performance of the season, as it’s always difficult to make that sort of call. I am particularly keen on the one in Valencia or at Monza, but this one is definitely up there: I pushed from start to finish, maybe taking some more risks in overtaking compared to previous races".

The double world champion believes that scrapping on the first lap allowed Red Bull to stretch out a comfortable lead.

"Today, after the start, I tried to immediately attack the McLarens getting into their slipstream. They were fighting among themselves and maybe they forgot about me and I managed to get past at least one of them. Then I also managed to overtake Button just a few laps later, but the time lost in those few laps allowed the two Red Bulls to pull out a bit of a gap. In the second stint, I made the most of Webber’s problems with the KERS to overtake him: yet again we have seen that anything can happen and that the races are always long and difficult..."